Having the current Judiciary establishment in Turkey, this might be the best result. Now comes the referendum on September 12, the anniversary day of 1980 coup d’etat. Hopefully, coup constitution will get a blow that day…

Article 148 of the Turkish Constitution, which establishes the functions and powers of the Constitutional Court, states: ?The Constitutional Court shall examine the constitutionality, in respect of both form and substance, of laws, decrees having the force of law, and the Turkish Parliament?s Rules of Procedure.

The Constitutional Court of Turkey has declared parts of the government’s constitutional reform invalid. The press writes that the court has once more overstepped the boundaries of its jurisdiction, but that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan has nevertheless scored a partial victory in his campaign to bring more democracy to the country.

After deliberations which lasted almost 10 hours, Turkey?s Constitutional Court on Wednesday signed, sealed and delivered another historic decision which, although in part disputable, shines with its caution to not cause severe damage for the fragile democracy.

Turkey?s Constitutional Court, which has sparked heated debates due to its controversial rulings in the past, has added one more such ruling to its record, annulling key amendments in a government-sponsored reform package that aims to raise the judicial and democratic standards in the country.

The Turkish government avoided early elections yesterday (7 July) when judges approved its proposed constitutional reforms. However, the changes will need to be approved in a referendum, with the main opposition party already campaigning against them. EurActiv Turkey contributed to this article.

Turkish Ruling Cools Political ShowdownWall Street Journal
By MARC CHAMPION ISTANBUL?An imminent showdown over Turkey’s political future appears to have cooled for the summer after its top court decided not to veto

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s highest court has given the go-ahead for a September referendum on a series of government-backed constitutional reforms by rejecting an opposition request that the measures be cancelled.

The Turkish Constitutional Court is reviewing a petition submitted to it by the main opposition party concerning the constitutional amendment process. The fact that the court accepted the petition in the first place is already a blow to the face of the court?s credibility. The court has not been given the mandate to review constitutional amendments according to their essence. It has only the authority and duty to inspect the formal aspects of the process: whether the bill was read in Parliament according to the letter of the Constitution, whether the opposition was given due time to raise its concerns, whether the vote was done under fully secret and free conditions and so on.

In the first piece of this series I started to introduce the outcomes of the two-day workshops that the Human Rights Agenda Association and the Young Civilians held on the Ergenekon case in İstanbul on April 10-11 of this year.

The biggest story in yesterday?s Turkish newspapers seemed to be the ?format? of the visit Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Republican People?s Party?s (CHP) new leader, paid to army trenches in the southeastern corner of the country. Did he stand up tall, or kneel down? Did he look determined to finish off the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) or not? How was he treated by the commanders and soldiers?

I think the new leader of the Republican People?s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, is thinking along the same lines as the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) administration about the headscarf and Kurdish problems.